In cold winter environments when girls wish to, or are required to, wear jumpers/skirts to parochial or secular school, there is a need to protect their legs from the cold and keep them warm. Yet, to do so in an attractive manner, comfortably, and to permit easy donning and removal is important. Similar concerns are present in other environments, too, i.e. getting ready for a dance recital, for an athletic event, etc. Keeping the legs warm, from ankle up to the top of the thighs, is highly desirable and, yet, removal of the garment keeping the legs warm, in a minimal amount of time and with ease, and without going to a place of seclusion for the removal is very important, too. Heavy wool tights offer protection outdoors, but are uncomfortably warm for extended wear indoors. Pants worn under jumpers/skirts can provide some protection, but can look sloppy and can be difficult to remove (and often an adult is needed to help remove the pants when they are worn by a child), and they are often not permitted in conjunction with a school uniform. Finally, leggings worn underneath a skirt or dress look neat, but provide little warmth during cold weather, and are still difficult to remove without the assistance of an adult and/or the removal of shoes.
Accordingly, there is a need for a legwarmer-like garment that can protect and warm users' legs which allows a user to maintain a neat look, while simultaneously being easily removed even by a child without the assistance of an adult and/or the removal of shoes. There is a need for such a garment to provide selective warmth to the legs which can be easily and quickly removable, without sequestration, which garment does not necessarily also cover the lower torso or pelvic area of the user. Yet, in an alternate embodiment, the leg coverings of the present invention can be attached to and thus be integrated with a lower torso-covering pair of shorts to provide overall and consistent warmth to the lower part of the body and, yet, when desired the leg covering portions can be detached from the shorts and removed for comfort and “look” and, yet, the shorts maintained for warmth and reattachment of the leg coverings when and as desired.
The leg covering garment primarily suited for young girls presented herein has preferably the aesthetic quality and appearance of cable knit or sweater knit tights. Of course, other patterns can be used, too, e.g., ribbing, patterns, etc. They preferably have an outer lining made of cable knit, ribbed knit, sweater knit, or any type of material that looks like tights, while also having an inner lining made of stretch fleece, jersey knit, brushed terry, or another material which provides a tight fit and warmth. The exterior could even be waterproof, too. The leg-covering garments are preferably easily donned and removable even for young girls to put on and take off without removing their shoes. Removal and donning is done without removal of any lower torso or pelvic area-covering clothes, i.e. a skirt, tights, underwear, etc., and yet the present invention can be placed on and easily removed with or without the shorts component, if used by the wearer. The purpose of the present invention is to provide an attractive additional layer of leg warmth during cold weather for young girls wearing skirts or dresses (or any article of clothing that exposes at least part of their legs) that is easy to take off when indoors and to put on when going back outside, without removing shoes and without necessitating an extra layer being provided to the lower torso (although in one embodiment the leg garments disclosed herein are useful in conjunction with a pair of mating shorts. However, in that embodiment, the shorts (covering the lower torso) will remain in place and the leg warming garment portions removable and reattachable, as desired.
A preferred embodiment of the inventive legwarmer has an exterior fabric integrated or joined to an interior fabric, with an elasticized thigh-located cuff. The two layers are connected along their upper edges by the thigh cuff, preferably by conventional sewing, adhesive, fusing, etc., and they may be also connected along the lower edges by an ankle cuff. Preferably, a zipper is vertically provided and located along the lateral edges of the garment (when flat) and preferably extends from the bottom of the ankle cuff to the top of the thigh cuff. Thus, the zipper can be zipped and thereby convert the double layer of material from its flat condition to a tubular condition which is wrapped around the user's leg.
In another preferred embodiment of the invention two zippers are provided, one extending down from the thigh cuff but only a portion of the overall length of the leg warmer, i.e., not all the way down to and through the ankle cuff and the other zipper, located around the garment from the first zipper, but extending up from the ankle cuff substantially extends the entire height of the garment but not entirely extends from top to bottom. This large zipper along with the small zipper extending down from the thigh cuff are of a combined length greater than the length of the garment. When both zippers are unzipped, the garment can easily be slipped on and over a foot and shoe for both donning and removal.
Other embodiments are provided, too, e.g., a single zipper extending substantially the entire length but not through the elastic thigh cuff; a pair of zippers either vertically aligned or not, which defines a central tubular section which is sufficiently stretchy to allow for donning and removal, as desired, etc.
In the embodiment with a single zipper not extending entirely from top to bottom or a pair of opposed zippers, each extending toward the other but only for a portion of the overall length of the leg warmer, i.e., not all the way through the leg warmer, it is considered not fully “separating” nor capable of getting into a fully, flat condition. The fully separating single zipper (with one or two slides for the opening and closing of the same zipper) option for the inventive leg warmers is within the scope of the invention and may be easier to manipulate for some age groups of wearers while the two zipper or partial-separating versions may be easier to manipulate (for donning and removal) for other age groups. Manual dexterity and body shape also come into play in selecting which of the versions of the invention are best suited for the particular individual.
There are two preferred embodiments of the present inventive leg covering garments. The first is a stand-alone thigh-high set of legwarmers (and that embodiment can take the form of a single fully separating zipper, extending from the ankle area or cuff up either through the thigh cuff or up to the elastic thigh cuff OR a pair of partially separating zippers, one from the ankle area or cuff extending upwardly close to the thigh cuff and another zipper, not vertically aligned with the first zipper but preferably about 180 degrees around from it and extending down from the thigh cuff but only a short distance; the total length of the two zippers being greater than the overall height of the garment—and the second embodiment is a connectable pair of shorts with the legwarmers to form tights. The present invention is preferably body hugging and fitted on the legs like a pair of tights (i.e. not slouchy 1980's-style calf leg warmers) and ideally has one or more zippers that allow a wearer to easily and quickly remove them without taking off shoes and without removing torso-engaging underwear or pants. In one embodiment, the pair of leg-covering garments have elasticized cuffs at the thigh that expand enough to slip over and off around the shoes, but the cuff is elastic/resilient enough, i.e. has enough stretch and elasticity to keep the legwarmers in place and prevent them from sliding down. In another embodiment, the leg-covering inventive garment has a self-sizing mechanism—a preferably elastic band with a button hole, the band being sewn into the thigh cuff (at the back) which can be suitably stretched and buttoned to one of the buttons on the front of the leg warmer to get the proper fit about the thigh. In one embodiment, the thigh-high, removable leg warmers function alone. In another embodiment, they cooperate with the bottom edges or cuffs of the legs of a pair of shorts to help keep them up and to provide even more body warmth.
The second embodiment of the present invention provides substantially the same design for a leg-covering garment as described in the first embodiment, but also preferably includes fitted shorts (or a torso covering section) that the leg portions attach to and detach from. This embodiment is similar to a combination of normal, commonly-known leggings and windbreaker or warm-up pants, where the bottom leg portion can be horizontally unzipped and removed. However, the leg portion on these garments is easily removed from the shorts via a child-friendly attachment mechanism, buttons on the leg warming garment and button holes at the cuffs of the shorts, for example, allowing for selective removal of the leg portion without passing the garment over the feet and shoes (in the single fully separating embodiment) or allowing easy passage of the foot and shoe through an opening in the leg warmer garment (in the embodiment where two, non-aligned, vertically oriented zippers are provided to allow the device to be donned and removed from the wearer's legs.
In the preferred embodiment, the attachment mechanism between shorts and leg warming garment(s) is a button on the thigh cuff and a corresponding buttonhole on the bottom edge of a cuff of the shorts. However, other attachment means, such as snaps or Velcro, are also envisioned. This version allows the wearer to maintain the shorts portion, while removing the leg portions when indoors. The shorts part of this embodiment allow the user to maintain the benefit of that portion of the warmth of the garment, but at the same time the shorts can be covered and hidden by the skirt or dress being worn. Here, too, the leg warmer portions are easily and quickly donned and removed by the vertical zipper, Velcro, or other holding mechanism without passing over the shoes (in the fully separating, one-zipper embodiment) or passing over the foot and shoe (in the two zipper, non-aligned, substantially vertical zipper version). The present invention also differs from other pants in appearance while still being attractive and providing warmth. They are fitted to the legs and look like tights-plus the shorts that remain on the wearer (in that embodiment) will not have a zippered edge that could be uncomfortable for the wearer. The shorts of the present invention are substantially regular shorts with button holes on the cuffs, plus the leg warmer garment portions themselves can be worn by themselves, i.e., without the shorts or integrated and connected to the shorts.
The present invention is designed to be easily removable, likely when a user is indoors. Therefore, one or more zippers are preferably provided so that the leg section can not only be detached from the shorts in that embodiment, but also so that, in any embodiment, it can be unzipped from its full tubular shape to be removed without requiring the user to take off whatever article of footwear is being worn at the time. In one preferred embodiment, one fully-separating zipper is utilized. For this connection, “fully separating” means converting the tubular legwarmer into a flat condition while “partially separating” means to retain at least a portion of the leg warmer in a tubular condition, yet still allowing ease of donning and removal. Full separation allows the garment to be fully unzipped and removed without passing over the feet. In the two zipper embodiment, the two zippers are not aligned and preferably are located 180 degrees around from one another. One zipper extends upwardly from the ankle area and almost through (but not through) the top of the garment, i.e., it terminates near to the top or thigh area. The other zipper extends downwardly from the thigh towards the ankle area, but only extends a short distance down. When both zippers are open, the circumference and/or elasticity in the area of the ends of the zippers provides a wide enough opening for the foot, with a shoe to pass therethrough. In this preferred embodiment, the combined length of the ankle-up zipper and that of the thigh-down zipper is greater than the overall length of the leg warming garment, so that some overlay of zippers is provided. Preferably, the ankle-up zipper is far greater in length than the thigh-down zipper but other dimensions and lengths may be used.
In the two zipper embodiment, one or more partially separating (i.e., a section of the height or length from ankle to thigh is always tubular i.e., will not lay flat like the fully separating embodiment with a single zipper) when the zippers are fully unzipped. Instead, the elasticity allows removal over the feet and shoes. If one partially-separating zipper is used, it preferably unzips from the ankle up and the thigh cuff is sufficiently elastic to allow the foot and shoe to pass through it without difficulty. If more than one partially-separating zippers is used, one preferably unzips from the ankle cuff up while another zipper preferably unzips from the thigh cuff down. In a preferred embodiment, the two zippers can be located on opposite sides of the leg warmers and can extend vertically past one another. In another embodiment (where the zippers do not overlap) approximately only a few inches of material is left between the two zippers, thus achieving the benefit of being easily removable when the two zippers are unzipped towards one another, by a user pulling the garment down around the foot and whatever shoes are worn, but while maintaining a small section of tubular length for ease of re-zipping and putting the leg warmers back on when they are desired to be worn. In this partially separated embodiment, the ever-present tubular sections can be located at or about the knee (about ½ the height of the leg warmer) so that zipping up for donning and unzipping can be easily done, even while sitting down. Also, in this partially separating embodiment, with two zippers coming close to the top and bottom of the knee, the tubular leg warmer can be further enlarged in size (to accommodate the knee and removal over the shoe) or made of elastic material (as the thigh high cuff) to allow easy placement and removal over the shoe of the wearer. One zipper unzips up (from ankle cuff towards the knee) and the other zipper (located around on the other side of the leg warmer) zips down (from the thigh cuff towards the knee). The elasticity of the garment, at the location of the ends of the zipper provides the opening for the foot, with a shoe.
The garment, when secured around a user's leg, should fit snuggly, in the same manner as tights do. Accordingly, the exterior fabric and the interior fabric may be stretch fabrics and/or the garment may be suitably shaped and tapered. For example, the exterior fabric may be a knit fabric such as cable knit or ribbed knit fabric. Additionally, the exterior fabric may be water-resistant and anti-pilling. The interior fabric, on the other hand, may be a 2- or 4-way stretch fabric (e.g., a stretch fleece, jersey knit, brushed terry fabric, etc.). The interior fabric is preferably tight-fitting, warm, and comfortable (e.g., tactile comfort) and preferably moisture wicking. The overall garment is preferably machine washable and durable.
A preferably-elastic thigh cuff (comprised of one or more elastic bands or merely the elasticity of the top of the garment, when doubled up at the top to form a cuff) is provided at the top of the legwarmer and preferably fits snuggly about the user's thigh, so that it remains in place when worn. The thigh cuff preferably includes an elastic band with a button hole that stretches and attaches at the optimum length to one or more circumferentially spaced buttons on the cuff (at the front of the leg warmer garment) to provide a tight, comfortable fit. In one embodiment, the thigh cuff is shorter in circumferential length than the joined fabrics to facilitate a snug fit to the thigh. In the preferred embodiment, the self-sizing elastic band mechanism is provided. The thigh cuff can be just as wide, less wide, or wider than the exterior and/or interior fabric located just below but the thigh cuff should hold the leg warmer garment up and upon the thigh of the wearer. The thigh cuff can be elasticized with several bands and cinch in when lain flat (i.e., when not worn) but the overall aesthetic look is not as desirable as the other embodiments.
In the preferred embodiment, the garment is tapered proportionately, like the pant legs of tapered jeans or leggings, for example, and the sizing and tightening of the thigh section along with the elasticity of the fabrics for the entire length of the garment are all that is needed to maintain the same, snug around the leg and up upon the thigh. In the preferred embodiment, an ankle cuff is also provided but it is not required. It can be similar to the thigh cuff. The fabric employed for the exterior and interior layers provide, generally, sufficient elasticity for the ankle cuff and thus no elastic band(s) nor self-sizing elastic band with button holes and buttons is provided. It is “elastic” in the sense that it stretches around the ankle and is held there, but it doesn't necessarily require an elastic band, separate from the fabric used for the interior and exterior fabrics.
One or more zippers (in the fully or partially separating embodiments, respectively) preferably join the otherwise free lateral edges of the leg warmers or garment and when fastened, also hold the garment about a user's leg. If one zipper is used, the zipper preferably extends from the lowermost edge of the ankle cuff to the uppermost edge of the thigh cuff. In the two zipper or partially separating embodiment, the bottom zipper extends substantially up from the ankle cuff towards the thigh cuff while the top zipper, not-aligned (preferably 180 degrees around) and extending down from the thigh cuff towards the ankle cuff is provided. The zippers, when unzipped, allow for donning and removal of the garment while the single zipper, in the fully separating embodiment, will fully separate the leg warmer into a flat layered fabric and that is easy to remove from the leg of the wearer. In the case of the partially-separating embodiment, a small amount of tubular material is present, even after unzipping the zippers but an opening is provided, with elasticity, sufficient to allow the foot and attached shoe, to pass therethrough.
Alternatively, the zipper(s) may be replaced with hook and loop fasteners, buttons and buttonholes, tabs and slots, buckles, etc., or a combination thereof. Additionally, a pair of fitted shorts may be included as an element of the garment. The leg portions of the leg warming garment could be fastened to the bottom edge of the shorts with buttons of the leg warmers passing through button holes of the cuffs of the shorts, or zippers, hook and loop fasteners, etc., or a combination thereof can be employed although not believed as comfortable as the button-buttonhole embodiment. In any event, the overall effect being like leggings or tights when fastened to shorts or, if no shorts are employed, thigh-high leggings or tights which are warm and cover the legs but very easy and quick to don and remove. The once-joined fabric (in the embodiment of the leg sections using a fully separating zipper) form a leg-encircling tube and may be fastened to the shorts at the thigh cuff. The partially separating zippers, however, also can be integrated to the shorts, in the same manner.
In one embodiment, there is provided a substantially vertical zipper which when unzipped fully separates the tube into a flat multiple layered garment. In the partially separating embodiment, where either one zipper is used which extends up to but not through the thigh cuff or a pair of opposed, yet non-aligned zippers are used, the leg warmers can be used by themselves or in conjunction with a pair of shorts. In the embodiment where two zippers are provided and not aligned, preferably, they are 180 degrees around from one another. In this embodiment, the zippers actually extend beyond one another so that the zipper commencing at the top of the thigh extends and zips and unzips down to a point below where the zipper extending up from the ankle cuff extends upwardly. Thus, in this embodiment, an overlap of zipper ends is provided and that defines an opening allowing for slipping the foot (even with a shoe thereon) therethrough for allowing ease of donning and removal.
The present invention is unique because the wrap around or slide on and off leg warmers described herein combine the concepts of breakaway athletic warm-up pants, leg warmers, tights and leggings, but differs from each enough to present a new and non-obvious product. It is similar to breakaway athletic warm-up pants (e.g. pro basketball players remove their warm-up pants without taking off their sneakers) but is also fitted, stretchy and attractive to wear with skirts or dresses in a professional environment and preserves the look of tights so that a user doesn't have to wear a pair of pants or a lower torso covering section underneath a skirt for warmth or for holding the leg warming portions. Athletic breakaway pants include an integrated lower torso engaging section with the leg sections. The present invention does not. Stated differently, breakaway basketball pants separate from the waist down to the ankle so that the pants themselves entirely break away and no shorts remain on the athlete. The present invention, even when the leg warmer sections are removed (after detaching from the shorts) leaves the shorts on the wearer and, in addition, as an alternative to reattaching to the shorts, allows for the wearing of the leg portions on their own.
The present invention is also similar to leg warmers in function, but provides substantially better coverage (i.e. covers the full leg, while conventional leg warmers generally cover just below the knee), stays in place (by use of a stretchy interior lining, stretchy exterior fabric and a thigh cuff area with a self-sizing elastic band of elasticity) by hugging the length of the leg and therefore does not slide down nor bunch up in the middle. The present invention provides additional warmth via the interior fabric and maintains an attractive outside appearance.
Finally, the present invention is fitted like tights and leggings, but is not a pair of pull-up pants or tights which require the removal of shoes to be put on or removed. It provides leg warmth without an extra lower torso covering section (while providing the flexibility of wearing the leg coverings alone, with or without shorts, but if with shorts, allows for removing the covering portions from the shorts and allows for leaving the shorts on the wearer). The one or more zippers along the peripheral lateral edges of the fabric make the present invention easy to put on and take off even with shoes intact. In one embodiment, a pair of shorts is provided and remains on the wearer after the leg portions are selectively removed, thus providing flexibility for the wearer, maintained warmth of the upper thighs, and ease in the changing process. Alternatively, in the preferred embodiment, the leg portions can be worn without the shorts.
While the foregoing embodiments are directed for use primarily by young children and those required to wear school uniforms (or outfits) or by a woman wearing a skirt or dress in a professional environment, it is envisioned that the present invention could be adapted for other individuals (athletes, dancers, etc.) of other ages and in other situations, as well. For example, in a sporting environment, the garment could be worn during warm-ups and easily removed prior to an event or match.
The present invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit and the essential attributes thereof, and, accordingly, reference should be made to the appended claims, rather than to the foregoing specification, as indicating the scope of the invention.